The Franka Solida III Medium Format Camera

A folding camera build in West Germany in the American Sector.

The Franka Solida III advertisement is a nice Medium Format Folding Camera.
Its design is the standard bellows design of its time.

The Camera is lightweight and fits into a pocket when folded.

Before I tell you more here are the (what I think) most important specs of the Franka Solida III:

Wight: 559g (without Film inserted).
Shutter: Prontor-S
Lens: Schneider Kreuznach Radionar 1:2,9 / 75
Film type: 120 film
Image Format: 6×6 (square)
viewfinder: Look through only, no range finder. (can be bought separately)
1/4 inch screw mount.
Light meter: none (you need an external one)

Additional Equipment: Leather grip,

A Quick Guide on how to use The Franka Solida III

After inserting a film into the Camera you obviously need to unfold it, therefore you push the little button on the bottom left of the camera next to the screw mount (Image below). Attention, the camera will unfold automatically.

Now that the camera is Open, you can watch through the viewfinder and compose your image. You will see that by watching of through the viewfinder of the Franka Solida III, a part of the image is covered by the lens and also you will not be able to determine the depth of field since it is a very rudimentary viewfinder. Also, there is no built-in light meter, so you will have to use an external one as well.

So how to focus?

Focusing on the Franka Solida IIIadvertisement

To correctly focus the image of the Franka Solida III there are two options:

1. You can estimate the distance between you and the subject and choose the corresponding settings at the front of the lens.
2. You can buy an external Range finder such as the Watameter advertisement or a BLIK from the Russian company LOMO advertisement . You use these range finders to determine the correct distance and set the corresponding settings on the lens. (image below)

All you have to do now is to take your light meter readings, focus the picture crock the shutter and take a shot.

The Small red Window on the back

on the back of the camera, you will find a small red window (image below). This window is covered on the inside by a piece of metal, showing the film and image format. If you remove the cover you can see the number of the picture on the film. It also helps you to correctly forward the film to the next frame. Don´t forget to close the red window again (with the lever under it) so no light will accidentally enter the camera. Do not trust the red window to much!

You forward the film by using the turning wheel on the top left of the camera. An arrow shows you the right direction.

The scale at the Top

The scale at the top of the camera (image below and above) shows you the depth of field to be expected at the different lens settings and distances.

The Schneider Kreuznach Radionar 1:2,9 / 75

The Radionar is a great lens, with great overall sharpness when stopped down to about F 4.5, at F 2,9 slight unsharp areas at fringes of the image could occur but they give a nice artistic look to the image.
The shutter of the Franka Solida III is a German Prontor-S shutter with the following shutter speeds:
1s 1/2s, 1/5s, 1/10s, 1/25s, 1/50s, 1/100s, 1/250s and a bulb mode B.

To use the Bulb mode set the lens to “B” now you either have to use a cable release or you use the small lever at the front of the camera next to the “T” (See the first picture under the header image). Push it towards the “T” (as the arrow suggests), when you now release the shutter it will stay open until you move the lever back to the right (its initial position).

Some things to keep in mind

The Franka Solida III was build around the year 1951, so it is just normal that when you buy such an old camera off of eBay, that it could have some minor or even major issues. Mine, for example, had: a hole in the bellows, mould in the viewfinder, fungus and haze in the lens, tow shutter blades that came loose and the shutter speeds were off by 3 seconds.

That all is no reason not to keep the camera and with some use of your favourite search engine, you will be able to repair all these things by yourself most of the time.
If you are lucky, the fungus has not damaged the coating of the lens yet (if there is any) so you can completely remove it without any fungus skeletons remaining (use alcohol and or hydrogen peroxide 3%). To get the shutter speeds back under control most of the time you just need to clean the lens, with either lighter fluid, alcohol or both. Just make sure to remove the lens elements first and fire the shutter sometimes during the flushing and drying process.

Below you will find some pictures made with the Franka Solida III advertisement after maintaining it. Note I do not own an external range finder. so i estimated the distances.

BUY A FRANKA SOLIDA III HERE advertisement

GET FILM HERE advertisement

The Wista 45D field large format camera

Designed to be a point and Shoot Camera.

The Wista 45D advertisement is a great 4×5 large format camera, created by wista co., LTD.
It is a field camera designed in a way, to give the photographer the ability to use it as a point and shoot camera.

Since the camera is a bit heavy I never used it that way. I usually use it for portrait or nude art, since the movements enable me to play with the field of focus.

Before I tell you more here are the (what I think) most important specs of the Wista 45D:

Wight: 2.85kg (without lens).
Lensboard: Shenn Hao / Linhof Technica / Horseman. advertisement
Film holder: Standard 4×5 Filmholder eg. Fidelity. advertisement
Ballows extension: 300mm.
Front movements: Rise, Shift, Tilt.
Back movements: Tilt, Swing (only micro-adjustments).
Rotating Back: Landscape to Portrait and vice versa.
Frame / Focusing-Hood.
1/4 inch screw mount.
Bubble level at the top.
Additional equipment: Leather grip, pistol grip, point and shoot viewfinder.

A Quick Guide on how to use The Wista 45D

First, of course, you have to mount the camera to a tripod, therefore you screw your tripod mount into the 1/4 inch screw mount at the back of the 4×5 Camera. (Image below)

Now it is time to open the camera, therefore you first slightly unscrew the big lower knob on each side of the camera, then gently press the black button in the middle of the lower part of the camera. In the above image, you find this button to the right-hand side of the accessorize mount.

When the Wista 45D is opened up, the next step is to place the lens mount or front standard.

To place the front standard, let´s squeeze the two black levers at the bottom of the standard together and pull it into its rails. (image below).
The rails have handles and little wheels on each side. These wheels are made for focussing, the levers are made to lock or unlock the position of the focusing or the rails. Now just mount your lens onto a Shen Hao or Linhof Technica Lens board and place it into the lens holder of the front standard.

I assume, you know how to operate your lens, that´s why I do not go deeper into that here.

Front standard can do the following movements: rise, shift, tilt.

Using the 4×5 Cam is super simple.

Operating the Wista 45D advertisement is easy from now on. Turn it around to and open the focusing-hood, by pushing the little silver button upwards. (image below).
In the event you can not see anything on the ground glass, make sure you opened up your lens.

In case you want to change from landscape to portrait orientation, simply turn the back by pushing the little black lever at the top side of the back. (it is on the right-hand side on the image below).

The image below shows the Wista 45D with open focusing-hood.

All you have to do now, is totake your meter readings, focus the picture turning the wheels at the lower part of the opened front and to take a shot.

However, should you need some back movements the Wista 45D is also capable of doing that. Simply open the knobs (the ones you had to turn to open the camera) and tilt the back part downwards. If you need a backswing, you can use the micro-adjustment knobs on the side of the camera. These are the smaller ones above the big ones. use one at a time and you have a slight swing. (See image below)

The vertical wheels at the front standard are to tilt and raise the lens.

Since you managed to prepare your camera, metered and focused your image it is time to insert the film holder and to take the shot.
Inserting the film holder is super easy, slightly pull the black metal part on the right-hand side (in portrait mode it is at the top) and slide in the film holder into the Wista 45D.  (Image below).

Before you pull out the dark slide from the film holder make sure you closed your lens again, otherwise you would expose your film to light immediately and uncontrolled.

Take your shot, move the dark slide back in, remove the film holder and you are done.  congrats, you just took your first image with a Wista 45D field camera.

Some more information before my final conclusion.

If you do not like to work with the focusing-hood you can remove it temporarily simply by opening it up to the side. Note, that you will now need a dark cloth since otherwise, you will not see a lot.

There are two black, horizontal levers above and below the ground glass, these can be used to completely remove the ground glass and focusing hood of the Wista 45D. For example to renew the light seals or to completely clean the ground glass.

You could also remove the focusing hood completely, by bussing in the downside of its holder. But I recommend to keep it on since it also saves the ground glass from braking.

My last little tip is to paint lines onto your ground glass, yes you could buy some ground glass with premade lines but that would cause you to spend some unnecessary money. Just make sure to paint them onto the glass not on to the plastic screen.

Below you see some more images of the camera. After my final conclusion about the Wista 45D advertisement you will see some example images, taken with this large-format camera.

My conclusion about the Wista 45D

I love it, really! Even thou it is kind of heavy I would buy it again at any time. It is relatively small, easy to set up and use. And it for sure makes you the point of interest for people that are maybe around you (yeah I know, most of us don´t like that :-P ). The prices on eBay are also absolutely ok right at the moment. Most eBay sellers allow returning if something is wrong so I am absolutely not concerned about buying a bad camera.

For what I do (mainly portraits and nude art) the Movements are absolutely enough and I am sure they are enough for 85% of the users of 4×5 large format cameras. The only thing you have to make sure after buying one is that the bellows are light tight and that the light seals are ok.
But besides that, you can´t do anything wrong with buying one of these things.

I especially like the possibility to use Shen Hao or Linhof Technica lens boards.

Below you find some images taken with the Wista field 45D. (click to enlarge)

BUY A WISTA FIELD 45D HERE advertisement

GET LENS BOARDS HERE advertisement

GRAB FILM HOLDERS HERE advertisement

FIND LENSES HERE advertisement

A 50´s styled Shoot

Shooting Film in a style out of the 50´s.

(Waring this Page contains partial nudity and is maybe not suitable for younger viewers!)

I asked Julia if she is interested in doing an analog shoot with me, since I am building up my analog portfolio.

Our idea was to shoot something with an erotic touch, but still kind of old styled. Julia came up with the Idea of shooting the Images in a ” sexy 50´s” style.
Since the well-known Pinup style is totally overused I thought the idea was great. Since I never shot in “50´s ” style before, I had to do some research about the Style itself. For this, I searched the Internet for Ideas.

Now we just had to mesh this all up with a touch of erotic.

Some Things that were important.

• The light
• The Makeup
• The used Film
• The Location (in terms of space)
• Finding the right style, with and without the dress.

The Film

I decided to go with Kodak Tri-X 400 Advertising on my medium format camera. Since it is a nice and contrasty film with a pleasing amount of grain.
So it should perfectly support the contrasty style.

I also loaded some Portra 400 Advertising to the Hasselblad. But due to a lack of chemicals, I did not develop it yet. As soon as they are developed, I will load them into the gallery. Well if they are worth it. :-)

For my 35mm camera, i used Rollei RPX 400 (just to try out the film).

The Camera

I decided to use my Hasselblad 500C/M, even that I just own one lens for it, since it is one of my most reliable cameras. My RB67 maybe would have been the better choice in terms of the image format.

My backup camera was a 35mm Nikon, with some Rollei RPX400 Advertising loaded.

The Location

Arriving at the location, i had to find out, that for my particular lens (120mm) the given space was all but not enough.  The room did not really give a lot of space for lots of different angles. But since it was my first try shooting this style i simply decided to go for it and shoot.

The Light

We used available light only, what sometimes tended to be complicated since the light was very changing that day, meaning that starting at an f 5.6 at 1/500s ASA 400 I ended up using the same roll of film with F5.6 at 1/15s at the same location within 10 minutes. That was kind of a pain.
For the images in the kitchen, I had to push the Tri-X 400 Advertising to 1600.

I brought a reflector with me, but it was simply to big to be used in the small space. (you can see in the video).

For measuring the light i used a spot meter as well as a incident light meter.

The Results

For the fact that most things that could go wrong actually went wrong, i am quite happy with the results of our black and white photoshoot.
But see and decide for your self.